Football League World's West Brom fan pundit Sarah Rudge has expressed massive excitement at the prospect of Newcastle United striker Dwight Gayle returning to the club.

The Mail Online reported on Sunday morning that new Baggies manager Slaven Bilic wanted to negotiate a deal to bring him back to the Hawthorns if Salomon Rondon is to make his move in the other direction permanent.

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"This would be a huge boost to our chances of promotion," the regular punter told Football League World.

"With [Jay] Rodriguez looking to be departing and Hal Robson-Kanu simply not finding the net enough, Gayle was by far and away our best striker last season.

"He was a class above in the whole division in my opinion with not only his goal return but his sheer work rate causing endless problems for defenders."

Gayle scored an impressive 23 times in 39 league appearances last season, becoming an integral member of the Baggies push for an immediate return to the Premier League.

But they fell short in the end, losing to Aston Villa in the play-offs and are expected to have a tricky transfer window with Bilic set to slash the club's sizeable wage bill.

However, if the 28-year-old does return, Rudge thinks it could completely rejuvenate their hopes of a 2020 promotion.

"There is no question due to us failing to get promoted that we will lose key players this summer," she said.

"[Kieran] Gibbs, [Craig] Dawson, [Matt] Phillips and Rodriguez could all leave with [Mason] Holgate and [Stefan] Johansen having already returned to their parent clubs.

"We simply have to replace this quality if we want to push for promotion again.

"If we could negotiate with Newcastle in a deal whereby they keep Rondon and we can retain Gayle this, for me, could be the difference in winning promotion or not."

However, there are inevitable options that will stand in their such as the aforementioned wage bill currently being paid by the club.

Just weeks ago, West Brom's technical director Luke Dowling told the Birmingham Mail that they would not be able to afford his Premier League wages.

But has this latest update boosted confidence? Rudge is remaining realistic.

"My heart wants to believe he will return but my head tells me it just realistically won’t happen," she said.

"With us having to sign so many new players and reinvesting in the squad it seems impossible for us to be able to afford Gayle’s wages."

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